The Weight Of The World
by Danjor
Summary: Maes and his wife pass away in a horrible car accident leaving their daughter to his closest friend. Roy. Unsure as to what to do with her Roy severs all ties into her single life and promises to take care of her. Now two boys enter his school bring
1. Chapter 1

The Weight Of the World

The Weight Of the World

This Story Starts With A Death

"Roy Mustang?"

Roy turned around at the sound of his name, gazing across the room of sodden black mourners searching for his caller. It was an elderly man, Roy would guess in his sixties or so, he made his presence known by offering a wrinkly hand aged with liver spots. 

"My name is William Hara, I know this is a hard time, what the day of the funeral, but there is a matter of urgency I need to speak with you about." William glanced around the room, his eyes falling on the small blonde girl sitting lifelessly on the plush couch; Riza was holding her hand and stroking Elisia's hair. "Uh, would you mind talking in privet?"

Roy nodded, "Yes, that will be fine; the office is just over here." It was weird being at Maes's house with out him pressuring him about proposals to unsuspecting women Roy dated. His favorite of those women was Riza. She had been the only one he had been dating as late and Hughes was getting excited. 

'Your going to make a friend for my little girl aren't you? Maybe Gracias second child will be a little boy who can date your daughter' he had joked about that often while rubbing his wife's pregnant belly. 

The walk down memory lane was cut short when Mr. Hara closed the door, clearing his throat Roy sat in a chair next to a large wood desk, "So what is this about? The Hughes estate I assume? Considering Elisia is the only one remaining in the family and she is too young to be in charge of such a sum."

Mr. Hara continued to stand; he set a brief case on the polished wood and opened it, "Yes and no. The family estate is left to Elisia yes, but the matter of who Elisia will be staying with is still up in the air. Hughes original hope was to leave her to you."

Roy sat in stunned silence, watching as the old man continued to shuffle papers around, "Me?" Of course it only made sense, she had no other family and Roy was like an uncle to her. This was too much to handle, the death of the two people who meant more to him than anything in the world, including Riza, the death of the unborn child, and Elisia all alone. 

"Will you take her?" the shuffling stopped and Roy looked to see his face suddenly grow older with worry. "If you can't I understand, we can arrange a home for her but it will take some time, she'll have to go to a foster home-"

"That won't be necessary." Roy stood instantly, straitening his coat jacket and taking on an intimidating air of command. "She'll come home with me." No other words were exchanged as he stepped out of the small room. His steps thudded on the hard wood floors of the Hughes House, stopping only as he got to the couch. "Come on Elisia." He said quietly, he crouched down and retrieved her from the couch, "You can come with me."

In a matter of seconds Riza was at his side, her coat was in her arm, she walked silently behind him knowing that now was not the time to say a word. She was following him out the door when he turned, stopping her in mid step. 

"Riza, I think it would be best if you didn't come over tonight. This will be new to Elisia, and I think it's all ready enough of a shock as it is."

She nodded in silent understanding; he pulled out the military issued hat and turned to leave, stopping when Riza lightly grabbed his shoulder. "Will you call me when you're ready?"

Roy couldn't answer her, so he offered a tight lipped smile, he was going to see Elisia smile once more, and that was what he was meant for on this world and he knew there was nothing else. 

Stepping out on to the pavement Roy looked the bright clear skies above, he took his hand to wipe away the water rolling down his cheeks and into Elisia's hair "I hate it when it rains."


	2. Chapter 2

The Weight of the World

I'd Kill to be the Beast in Beauty and the Beast

By: me

I do not own, though that would be cool

All of Roy's plans were put on hold when this little girl came into his life. The mentioned man was standing in her door way, leaning against the wood frame drinking his hot coffee to help wake him up.

In all the grief and sorrow the past few years had brought him he couldn't help but feel a small smile creep across his face. She looked so peaceful sleeping there snuggled with the crochet blanket his grandmother had made for him, it had taken him a few hours of digging but he had found it.

It was hard to believe that she would be starting school today; the thought of it brought a memory to Roy.

It was Elicia's birthday party and two little boy's had wanted to play with her. Her father had put a stop to it by cocking his gun and giving them the crazy eye.

This memory didn't bring him pain like it used to, instead it made him smile. He was positive that he would act the same way when he saw a little boy trying to catch her attention.

The clock on the wall began to chime loudly, signaling that he had a half hour to get her dressed, a lunch made, and make it to school.

Elicia stirred under her covers, peeking up just in time to hear Roy mutter the word 'shit!'

"You cursed!" she said, pointing an accusing finger at him.

"I'll put a quarter in the jar, now get up!" he shouted, running down the hallway into the kitchen. "We are going to be late for your first day!"

Roy moved quickly around the kitchen preparing her lunch in record time. When he was done he ran back into her bedroom seeing that she was having trouble tying her shoes.

"Here let me help you." Roy knelt down before her, "We'll practice tying them tomorrow but today we are in a hurry. Sound good?"

"Yup." She nodded.

Once he was finished with her shoes he moved to brushing her hair into two pigtails. It was the only thing he could do properly; perhaps he would have to hire a girl to teach Elicia about feminine things.

There was no way Hughes's daughter would become a Tom boy, and there was also no way he was going to learn how to do braids and curls.

"All right, let's go."

Roy grabbed his coat and hat threw it over his arm then with the other he took Elicia's hand and pulling her down the hall of the apartment building and all the way to school, never once letting go of her hand.

"Ok Roy, you can let go." She said, pulling her hand away from his when they arrived at her teacher's door.

"Do you want me to go in and scout it out?" he offered, eyeing the door suspiciously.

"And scare everyone? Yeah right!"

"Ok I get it, give me a hug."

Elicia turned around and hugged her guardian, then quickly she planted a kiss on his cheek and before he could do anything she ran into the class room, giggling all the way.

That was that, her first day and she was already in the door and away from him. Now it was time for work.

Like always work was a chore, Roy sighed heavily and pulled on his coat, buttoning it all the way to the top then heading out to the street, haling a ride to work.

With Elicia being away as school he was going to have much more time on his hands, his ambitions were starting to flicker to the surface once again. The war's and the death had continued on over these past years, but now it felt different, it was feeling as if it might be coming to a head.

Roy had been so wrapped up in his thoughts that he didn't notice Riza standing out side his office door. He almost ran right in to her.

"Sir."

Roy looked up, a pang hitting his heart as he saw her sad expression, "Hello Hawkeye."

"Hello sir."

"What can I do for you?"

How could he be so cold to her? She had waited patiently for him to notice her, then when he had finally noticed her tragedy hit. Riza didn't put the blame on that, she put the blame on the way Roy had behaved towards her after that, constantly giving her the snub never wanting to talk to her about it, the way he acted that day she finally cornered her still hurt her to this day. The way he stared at her now brought that memory ripping back into her heart

"Roy… please talk to me." It was late at night and Roy was buried in paper work. It was a rare night that Elicia was visiting distant relatives and the Colonel was taking the opportunity to catch up on work her generally put off during the day.

He looked up from the papers, eyes rimmed in red, he looked tired. She had heard Elicia wasn't sleeping well at night; of course that news hadn't come from him.

"What can I do for you?"

"I just wanted to know…" suddenly she didn't feel so strong, she never felt strong around Roy not when it came to this at least. "I want to know what you think about me."

Roy pushed out a heavy sigh, it was as if he was holding that breathe for the moment they would talk about this.

"Riza… you are a wonderful woman, and I care for you, just not in the way you are wishing for."

The woman stood resolute, her hands fisted at her sides. Roy moved quickly to her side and offered her a soft hug. "Riza, I'm no good for you anyways. Just know that you are a good woman, but… not for me."

She was sure that Roy hadn't meant to hurt her as badly as he did, but those last word were the worst thing he could have possibly said.

'you're a good woman, but not for me.'

"Riza?"

Roy waved his hand in front of her face, bringing her back to the present.

"Sorry… I just came to inform you that Brigadier General Dobson will be arriving today."

Roy felt his mouth drop open, "Are you sure?"

"Yes, she'll be arriving with in the hour."

"Why didn't anyone tell me!"

Brigadier Dobson was a legend in the military. Not in the way the Kimblee was, or even General Grod. What she was famous for was being on hundred percent dedicated to the military by means of her desk job.

She did all the things no one wanted to do, and because of it she became an authority on it, shooting her through the ranks in that department.

Mildred didn't go with out her marks, a long time ago in the Ishbalan war, she did something or another… Roy didn't know, he didn't care, what was on his mind right then was the fact that his office was a mess with stacks and stacks of papers he had originally intended to burn.

"Get everyone in here and get them moving now! We need to get this place cleaned up before she gets here."

"Yes Sir."

Riza did as she was told, gathering everyone so that they could help him do the work he hadn't done in the first place. But that was what they did; they looked out for him because he looked out for them. Over the years it was becoming increasingly harder to do because of the lack of his ambition.

Today had been the first day she had seen him get so worked up in a long time. It was almost comical the way he stormed around, plowing through the papers.

Maybe the worst of it was over, maybe he was alive again, maybe he would come back to her.

With a smile she knew she shouldn't be wearing she ran to get the others.

"Knock, knock."

Roy looked up to the door where a woman was standing half in and half out.

"May I come in?"

"Yes, come in." Roy stood up, straitening his jacket and offering her a salute as he read the bars on her jacket.

So this was the Brigadier. Unlike Riza who took to wearing a uniform matching the men's uniform Mildred was wearing a very feminine one, it was the standard blue and tightly fitted, the lack of wrinkles in the heavy blue material made Roy feel slightly underdressed even though he had just put on his best jacket; her white cuffs and collar were firmly pressed. After finishing on her uniform his eyes trailed up along the curls of her long silky red hair to her white face that was still round with youth, and green cat shaped eyes, she had to be in her mid twenties.

If he had to say it he would admit to her being a very beautiful woman, in fact the only thing he felt that might be less than attractive about her were the square glasses hanging on the end of her nose and the frown she wore as she saw the dire state of his office.

"Looks like you have some work to do Colonel Mustang." There was a slight accent laced with her words, the origins of which Roy couldn't place.

Ok, Roy took back all former thoughts of her being pretty. Now he thought she was a hag who hadn't aged properly but eventually it would happen and then she would have a hump.

"I'm sorry, allow me to introduce myself, I'm Mildred Dobson." She offered her hand for Roy to shake.

Roy took it, all the while smiling at her. "And it seems you already know me Brigadier."

"Please, call me Mildred."

Mildred…. What a horrible name. It was a name a grandmother would have, not a young woman such as herself.

"Well then Mildred, I need to apologize for the state of my office."

"Oh it's quite alright, it's actually a blessing in disguise, I'm going to introduce you to the new filing system that you are to be using, so that means we won't have to redo any of this."

Mildred pulled out several pieces of paper from her brown leather brief case, from what Roy could see of it Mildred had written down her itinerary for the day including, 9:03am stop for coffee.

This woman was going to be a real pain in his ass.

"Then after that the Fuhrer has asked me to do an in depth examination of all your personal to make sure they are working in the correct department and at their full potential."

Roy's eye twitched, she was sent her by the Fuhrer to do that, perhaps something was up that he hadn't been expecting.

"Well," she said, pointing to all of the officers in the room, "Let us get started shall we? Once you have all this…" she pointed to the fallen papers, some stained with coffee, "organized I'll proceed to show you how it is to be filed. Until then I'll begin with my evaluations."

Roy watched as she turned and left, her heels clicking all the way down the hall way. She walked into another office and when he heard the door shut he groaned, "I should have seen this coming, if they were sending anyone it would have been someone like her."

The group proceeded to cleaning up the mess, Roy leaned over to grab a stack, some of the papers had fallen under the couch, and he reached under and pulled them out. There was something Roy hadn't expected to

!

"Murder! Someone has been murdered!" the old woman cried as she ran through the streets of the small town, her old fingers clinging to her grey hair as the fear shocked her entire body.

Ed and Al were the first to report to the scene when the heard the scared cries. Now standing in what should have been a holy place that should have been treated with reverence and respect they couldn't believe the murder that the saw.

It was the holy leader, he had to be sixty years, his body was laid out contorted while a long sword went through his chest, pinning him to the wood floor.

Lying next to him was something Ed hadn't expected to see, piece of evidence after piece of evidence proving him to be a despicable man, one who took advantage of young children in ways unimaginable.

"Is it bad that I don't feel too bad about this guy's death?" Ed asked, the tone of disgust riddled his voice but it was because of guilt, it was at the discovery of the things this man had done. "Why is it we always gotta find the churches with the rotten leaders?"

"I have no idea brother."

The two couldn't stand in the room any longer; there was nothing there that could indicate to an attacker, no sign of a struggle, no forced entry. Nothing.

"I don't think there's anything for us to do here Al."

"I don't feel too bad about his death either." Edward looked up to see his brother standing over him, wishing now more than ever that he could see his brother's expressions so that he could understand how he was feeling. "Those things that he did… they weren't…. right."

"But killing him wasn't right either." Edward offered, his hands buried in his pockets and eyes facing forward as he walked out of the church, passing the local police. "The police should have been the one to deal with them."

"But how were they ever going to catch him?"

"That person could have turned in all the evidence instead of just killing him."

"You're right." Al conceded.

"Let's get some food." Ed offered to break the silence

"Only you would be able to eat after seeing something like that."

Edward just grinned before running into the diner; Alphonse followed with much less enthusiasm. It was hard to get excited when you knew you were going to sit and watch your brother enjoy something that you couldn't even remember the way it tasted.

He felt her the instant he walked into the room, the way she sat there with her legs crossed, cup of coffee in one hand and paper in the other, dark hair pooling around her shoulders spoke to him.

If Al could have blushed, he would have.

The sound of his heavy shoes echoed through the building, everyone was looking at him now. If he had just walked like a normal person it wouldn't have been so bad.

"Geeze Al, what's gotten into you?"

Al didn't respond, instead folded his arms into his lap and looked pointedly at the table. Again Ed was irritated at the idea of never knowing what his brother was thinking, from his hand gesture he could tell he was embarrassed, but if it was concerning the loud noises he made while walking, or something else he couldn't tell.

Ed looked around the room hoping that would give him some idea. When he saw the girl who was probably the same age as them staring with a raised eyebrow at Al it made Ed grin with more joy than he was used to.

This was probably the firs time he had ever looked at a girl like that since they were little and Al learned the difference between girls and boys about the same time Winry decided to come over.

"Go talk to her." Ed said, arching his eyebrows.

"No!" Al shook his metal head wildly. "I can't do that!"

"Why not?"

"Because!" Al looked at her for a moment; her eyes were back on the paper. "I'm not exactly human." He knocked on his chest making a hollow sound.

"So, you'll have a human body soon enough and you need to practice now, while you've got a tough body. One that won't feel pain when one of them hit's you with a wrench."

Al looked back towards her, he thought about it for a moment, about asking the pretty girl what she was reading. Or maybe he could ask her how the coffee was.

But what if she asked if he wanted to try it? Then he had to pretend to drink it and all she heard was the hollow metal sound as it hit his suite of armor.

His emotions had gone from embarrassment, to worry, to hope, then finally ending on depression. No one saw this though, he couldn't show human emotions. Al was just a shell of a creature, and what if he couldn't get out of this form? That would mean he would spend the rest of his life with out love or other things.

This wasn't a story of Beauty and the Beast; this was the story of Beauty and the Rock. Nine times out of ten, the girl went for the frog kiss before the rock.

"Al… say something. What are you thinking, I hate when you go into your mind like that."

"It's nothing, I just can't."

Ed sighed, they needed to find a way to get Al's body and they needed to do it fast. When the waitress dropped off Ed's stew and he grabbed her wrist. "Is that girl from around here?"

The older waitress looked back at the dark haired girl, "Oh you mean Banner? Yeah she's been living here since she was about two, the old reverend that was murdered just this morning found her sitting on the side of the road. I guess she had been in some sort of accident, her left let and arm were nothing but stumps, and part of her side was giving way to an infection from the burns. Well the reverend took her in; sponsored to get her that automail they go on about in all the cities. She's more metal than human now, acts about that way to.

She paused in her explanation when she saw the glint of Ed's metal hand, "I mean she talks to everyone just fine, goes out into public with the church groups and all those things, but there would be times she would lock herself away for days. I guess losing her family like that will do that to a person.

"Course we don't know what happened to her family, just found her."

Al was looking at her now, searching and now he saw the automail, the hand that gripped the coffee cup, sticking out of her shirt collar and the leg of her pants all the shiny metal.

Now instead of attraction Al felt a bit of closeness. She was alone like Ed, even more so now that the Reverend was gone.

Maybe she had been one of those children he had beaten and abused.

Edward's smile had turned into a frown, "Maybe you shouldn't go and-" he started but Al was already on his feet and on his way to her.

She looked up at him, her eyes questioning him. "See you've got me life's story." She said, pointing her chin at the waitress who was now running around serving food. "It happens in a small town. Did she tell you I bite of stranger's heads?"

Al took a step back, "What no? Uh I'm Al, I just wanted to say hello to you."

Banner smiled, then with a foot she pushed out the chair across from her for Al to sit in. "Sit down, tell me what is on your mind."

Al sat down, she hadn't stared at him, wondering why he was in a suite of armor, she just looked back at her paper and continued to drink from her coffee cup.

"I just heard that you lived with the Reverend."

"Not with." She corrected, her eyes jumping to his, "No, I lived in the same place… I was taken care of by the ladies of the church. They were good to me."

"Oh, that's good." He looked back to Edward, he made it look like he wasn't listening in, but he wasn't eating his food so that was a clear sign he was. "My brother and I work for the military and we were at the site today, I was wondering if you saw anything."

Banner looked up at him, "No I didn't see anything."

"Well what are you going to do now?"

She shrugged while finishing off the hot liquid, "I guess go to central, I hear I have family there." She smiled at something, sort of like an inside joke.

"Oh, well my brother and I are headed that way! You can come with us, it's nice to have more company."

Banner looked over to the blonde haired boy, sitting at the table; he had frozen stiff at the mention of her coming along with them. There wasn't a logical reason why she shouldn't go with them, by all outward appearances she was a frail girl with a need to go to central and two military men were heading that way.

"That would be fine." She finally said, still watching Ed. He seemed to unfreeze but his shoulders were still tense. He was distrustful of her.

Al wished he could smile, that was what he wanted to do right then, "Oh good!" he cheered. "Then let's go!"

He rushed over to where Edward was sitting; he shoveled in the rest of his food it. "Ready Al?"

"Yeah! Banner wants to travel with us."

Ed should have thought twice about talking his brother into hitting on girls. He forgot just how sweet and appealing the boy could be to the opposite sex, even if he didn't have a human body he still had that voice that was so sweet and innocent. It was hard to deny giving him what he asked for.

Next time he would find a girl, interview her, and see what her goals and ambitions in life were after that if she were good enough for Al, then he would release the teenage boy upon her.

"So I heard." He looked at Banner, eyeing the heavy duffle bag at her shoulder then heading out the door. "Let's just get out of here before Roy sends the search dogs out for us."

The trio walked together, Edward was in silence but Al wouldn't shut up. He asked questions about everything, Banner's favorite color, if she preferred cat's to dogs, if she wanted to travel. He was asking them so fast that Ed wasn't sure if she ever had a chance to think the answer through before going on to the next one.

There was finally a retrieve from the incessant chatter when night came and the three set up camp just off the road. Banner was sleeping with her back to the fire, head resting on her duffel back, the sound of her heavy breathing was the only noise out side the crackle of the fire.

"Al, there's something I wanted to say to you before you got too chummy with her."

Al looked at his brother, "What?"

"It's something about the murder that's been bothering me. The way he was just sitting there, not struggle, no forced entry, it was like he knew the person that killed him and Banner was the only one under the age of fifty mentioned living there."

Al didn't say anything, he didn't want to listen to what Ed had to say. "I'm sure you're wrong."

"I'm sure I'm not."

"Why do you have to think the worst of everyone brother!"

"Just, be careful, ok?"

Al stood up and moved several feet away from his brother, sitting by the tree.

!!

Tell me what you think about everything…

Whether you want riza and roy to date, if you don't, what's with this creepy girl that al feels inclined to defend.

Well later.


	3. Chapter 3

The Weight of the World

Chapter Three

Bye: Me

Owned by: Not me

"Aha!" Shouted Mildred as she discovered the paper she was looking for.

It was late and she was certain she was the only one left inside of the central headquarters. Mildred would never be confused for someone that had a life and many friends. She had always been the one who stayed at home and did her homework, read her books, practiced with her gun and her alchemy. She had only ever had one or two serious boyfriends but it never bothered her, everything always fell into place for her.

"Is someone in here?"

Kimblee opened the door to Mildred's office and smiled at the woman sitting in a pile of papers that would look like a mess to anyone else but to her they were organized in a way that she could find anything at a moments notice.

"Yes." She said as she looked up, pushing her glasses back up the bridge of her nose. "The question is what are you doing here? I thought it was impossible to get you to do work."

"Now, now." He walked in stepping around her piles of paper and pulling her into the air. "I work very hard."

He grabbed her glasses off of her face and set them down. Kimblee had never liked the way they looked on her but she did so much clerical work she needed it for the reading.

Out on the field she was a deadly woman, the first time he had seen her was in Ishbal when her leader was killed before her and her other subordinates. She was the only one not losing her head and lead them across the battle field to complete the mission.

She fought in a much more civilized manner then Kimblee would have, but hey not everyone is perfect. After all, he lied to her daily and told her he was monogamous and because Mildred was one of those trusting people she never questioned him when he said he was doing something and was lying.

Mildred was a beautiful woman that was for certain, and she was a little tiger behind the doors that wasn't the problem. No he just wasn't a one woman man and the only reason he made a public relationship with Mildred was because he needed to be grounded with a woman who was well viewed in the public eye. She would appear to keep him on a short leash and his fellow comrades wouldn't distrust him quite as much.

"I can see that." She said as she smoothed down the back of his hair where it was rumpled from falling asleep in his chair. "You want to see something I found out!"

Mildred reached back and put her glasses back on excitedly while leaning towards the paper she had found tucked away in some non descript pile. "You won't believe what Roy has hidden away in this rat hole."

Looked like Kimblee would be getting something better than nookie that night, "What is it?" he asked as he followed her across the room. She had taken lost the jacket to her uniform and was wearing an undershirt and her tight skirt. Her red hair that had been pinned up tight earlier that day was now hanging over her shoulders.

"It's a huge expense account that one of the generals has been using for vacation instead of actual work things." Mildred sounded cheery and Kimblee thought he was going to groan. He didn't care about this stuff, he liked the good stuff.

"You know what that means don't you?"

"No idea."

"I get to write them up." She sang happily.

"You like that don't you?"

"More than you will ever know." Mildred set the paper work down and pulled off her glasses, "Ok come here, I won't bother you with any of this any more."

Kimblee growls playfully, "You come here."

(())

Banner sat up as quietly as possible, her arm was aching something horrible where her joint and automail met.

"It's going to rain." She whispered to herself. Rain was never good her limbs ached and her metal foot would sink in the mud.

"I feel it too." Edward said as he rubbed his joint.

"I'm sorry. I didn't realize you were awake." Banner pulled her knees to her chest. The fire had burnt out hours ago and the cold of the night was starting to creep in, with her fleshy hand she tucked some stray black hairs behind her ear.

Edward didn't feel the need to hide his angry feelings toward her. "To be honest I had no idea if I could trust you here."

Banner's expression didn't change; she still had that same vague smile and dark green eyes. "What can I do to quell your fears?"

"For starters you can answer a few questions. What were you doing the night the priest was murdered?"

"And we are back to that." She leaned back on her duffle bag and straightened her long muscular limbs. "The night he was murdered I ate dinner with the ladies of the church, this was followed by scripture reading, then I did my hour of service to the lord by watching the sacrament while others slept then I finished up the evening by reading a book."

"And that is everything. Not too eventful and there was quite a bit of alone time."

Banner sighed, "When the ladies are intending to save your soul after you've done less that appropriate things you have to spend a lot of time alone with god."

"And what did you do that was so terrible."

"I have a thing for men." She said a mischievous look in her eye. "I most enjoy the things you should only do when sanctified by marriage."

Edward felt as his cheeks go bright red, and from the sudden stiffness expressed by Alphonse's metal body he could imagine his younger brother's fleshy cheeks going bright red as well.

"Would you like to know more? Let us see." She put a silver finger to her lips. "I am happy to get out of there with not feelings of guilt. In fact I'm happy the bastard is dead, there were many of us who knew what he was doing but no one would do anything because we couldn't. I don't know if you noticed but that is a small town and the churches in small towns hold most of the power."

Edward noticed but he still wasn't quite buying everything this girl was saying. "The murder seems to be done by someone he knew."

"He knew everyone in the town." She countered. "If I were you I would find some evidence that wasn't purely circumstantial before accusing people of crimes."

With nothing further to say Banner rolled over on to her other side and laid her head back on to her bulky duffle bag and started into the woods on the other side.

A large stick went flying through the air and pegged Edward in the head leaving a large welt behind.

"WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT FOR!" Edward looked over to his brother and the only response he got was Al rubbing his finger in a shaming motion.

(())

Roy had just put Elicia to bed and was sitting down in his most comfy chair with a glass full of scotch in his ready hand. The news he had gotten out of that small envelope that day was enough to sober him so thoroughly that he wasn't certain the bottle of liquor he had purchased on the way home would do nothing to give him a warm buzzed feeling.

Hughes hadn't been in a car accident; well it wasn't an accident at least. No Hughes and his wife had been run into on purpose.

With this new information the wheels in Roy's head started churning; he needed to get back on to the path of advancement that he had been planning on for years.

Roy then pulled his chess set in front of him to help give a visual of what he was up against. Now in the past two years he hadn't done much of anything to get him attention in a good or bad way. His closest subordinates were still by his side so that was good.

He put his king on his side and surrounded it with pawns. "But I have no clout with the other generals any longer. The biggest name on his side was an old Looney in the east."

Another sigh burst through his lips as he took out the queen and set it aside. With Elicia here he was much less mobile when it came to ways he could attack. He couldn't afford to worry about her well being.

From the opposite team he put their queen directly in front of him. This Brigadier General could be a big problem. She was sent her to do evaluations was she planning to break apart his pawns leaving him open to attack.

"Ok Roy old boy, goal for tomorrow, stalk Mildred."

They needed to know just how involved she was to the whole plan.

Me: Not much happening at the moment, but the next chapter will be better. I'm trying to get everything all set up.


End file.
